Less than three weeks after ordering his officers to demolish illegal constructions in the city, municipal commissioner Subodh Kumar directed that these structures be regularised instead.

Less than three weeks after ordering his officers to demolish illegal constructions in the city, municipal commissioner Subodh Kumar directed that these structures be regularised instead.

Kumar’s new circular was issued on February 4, the day chief minister Prithviraj Chavan met a delegation of builders.

The earlier circular, issued on January 15, ordered the BMC to demolish any structure constructed beyond the level for which the builder had the commencement certificate (CC). The revised circular says unauthorised constructions “can be retained/regularised in accordance with the provisions of the MRTP [Maharashtra regional Town Planning] Act, 1966”.

The structures can be regularised by charging the builder a penalty, which has been hiked from 3 to 25% of the developed land rate according to the ready reckoner, to 20 to 100%.

Kumar, who was out of town, was not available for comments. Ashok Shintre, director of the building proposal department who has signed the revised circular, said he was not aware of the reason for the new circular.

Sunil Mantri, president of the MCHI, said this was one of the demands builders had placed before Chavan.